“Vietnam, Nixon and Watergate had exhausted the country, and Jimmy Carter was president when I wandered into journalism, first in college radio, then newspapers. Since then, I’ve reported, edited, blogged, done press checks; worked at major metro and national dailies; helped get SF Weekly off the ground; helped publish a magazine; adopted early to digital news; taught editing; trained staffs overseas. I’ve been part of the Public Press since Day One.

“My role in the newsroom is to make writers’ lives difficult, unfortunately. So many questions! Comments! Revisions! We work a story hard, digging for as much detail, context and insight as possible. I’m a bit like a camera lens that both zooms in to macro and pulls back to wide angle, all the while looking for what might be obscured or hidden (X-ray glasses come in handy).”

Noah Arroyo, Assistant Editor & Lead Reporter

“We’re always looking for deep insights — generally, that entails a lot of digging for empirical evidence. To get that, we regularly seek out and pester experts and government officials, camping out in front of their offices when necessary. On many days I’ve set a recurring alarm on my phone, reminding me to call a source again and again until I reach them.

“That’s how we get the insider’s perspective. That’s how we get the data that allows us to create spreadsheets and charts mapping out the complex anatomy of a topic. After getting this broad view, we ask ourselves which aspects would be most important to readers.”

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